The US ambassador to the UN on Monday denounced the Security Council’s “forced” silence and “dangerous” inaction following North Korea’s new ballistic missile launches, accusing, without naming them, Russia and China of “defending” Pyongyang.

“In the face of last year’s unprecedented launches, two permanent member states are forcing us to remain silent despite repeated violations by North Korea,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to China and Russia’s May 2022 veto. canceling a draft resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on North Korea.

“On this vital issue, silence leads to futility,” he said at an emergency meeting of the Security Council called after Pyongyang’s missile launches in recent days.

“The inaction of the Council is worse than shameful, it is dangerous,” as the “inaction” of the highest body of the UN “encourages” North Korea, makes it believe that it can carry out such tests “without fear of consequences”; responsibility is not “collective” but has “specific” culprits, he insisted.

“The reality is that those who protect North Korea from the consequences of testing (weapons) (…) put Asia and the world at risk,” he continued, reasoning that thanks to sanctions approved by the UN in 2017, Pyongyang refrained from serious problems for nearly five years.

“If the two Member States continue to interfere with the Council in fulfilling its mandate, we can only expect North Korea to continue to defiantly develop and test weapons,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield added, saying that despite the proposed adoption of the SA statement, condemning actions of North Korea.

In a joint statement, 10 Security Council member states, including the United States, France, Japan and South Korea, condemned the testing of the new weapons.

“We call on all UN member states to join us in condemning the irresponsible behavior of North Korea,” they said.

“If we remain silent for fear that there will be new challenges, this will only encourage those who break the rules and write the new rules of the game as they want,” said Japanese Ambassador Ishikane Kimihiro.

“We have to look at things face to face. The current escalation is dangerous. And the question is very simple: can this Council agree that North Korea becomes a nuclear power?” said the French ambassador Nicolas de Riviere.

The latest decisions taken by the Security Council with full unanimity on North Korea’s weapons program date back to 2017. During the days of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Security Council adopted three resolutions imposing tough sanctions on Pyongyang, after ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons testing.

Russia and China, for their part, have blamed the US and South Korea for their joint military schools, which are expected to be activated in the near future. “The United States and its allies have a special responsibility in this situation,” said Dmitry Polyansky, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, believing that Security Council meetings on “criticism of North Korea” do not contribute to “settlement of the situation.”

Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dai Bing raised the issue, stressing that discussions at the UN about imposing further sanctions on North Korea “do not embody the constructive role needed to de-escalate the situation and do not bring forward new ideas that could lead to a solution to the problem.” “.

“The pursuit of solely imposing and accumulating sanctions only leads to a stalemate. China sincerely hopes for stability and not chaos in the (Korean) peninsula (…) China calls on all parties to exercise calm and restraint.”

Source: RES-IPE